Ted Kennedy

A quick review of the most prominently featured speakers over the first three days of the Democratic convention – which ones helped, which ones hurt, and which ones did neither.  read more »

After Michelle Obama's remarks concluded the first day of the democratic Convention, I ran into Senator Chuck Schumer of New York waiting for a car outside the Pepsi center. He was very pleased with the way things had gone so far.

"Flawless," he said. "Michelle Obama—if 25 percent of Americans were watching that, we'll go up 5 percent in the polls. It was beautiful. I had tears in my eyes with Kennedy and I had more tears in my eyes with Michelle Obama. How beautiful."

"The whole key to this convention," he added, "is that the only way McCain wins is to say Barack is not like us, and they do it in a nasty way.  read more »

After Caroline Kennedy addressed the Democratic convention on Monday night, the hall watched a movie about her uncle Ted Kennedy.

It showed Kennedy in black-and-white images as a young man pounding lecterns. It showed him in middle age hitting the campaign trail and then as a grandfather sailing with his children and grandchildren. Colleagues and family spoke about him, some in the past tense, and the film ended with Kennedy, only a few months ago, at yet another podium, shouting, “It is time now for Barack Obama.”

It had all the trappings of a lifetime achievement award, but Kennedy, it turned out, showed that he isn’t done.  read more »

Ted Kennedy not only appeared on stage, he actually delivered a ten-minute address. Around 9:30, just after his niece Caroline spoke and a video tribute was broadcast, the 76-year-old Democratic lion, accompanied by his wife Vicki, stepped out from behind the video screen and onto the stage. A stool sat next to the podium, but Kennedy didn't need it.

He made no direct mention of his battle against an aggressive form of brain cancer, which has been known to claim the lives of its victims within months of its diagnosis, but made it clear that he's not planning to go anywhere anytime soon.  read more »

The star of the opening night of the Democratic convention is supposed to be Michelle Obama, but it's a fairly safe bet that more people will be talking tomorrow about Ted Kennedy, who apparently will appear on stage after a video tribute is screened in prime-time tonight. The presence of the ailing Kennedy, diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer back in late May, figures to provide the convention with its most emotional moment. Inevitably, this will stir memories of the two previous Democratic conventions that were also brought to a halt by emotional tributes to Kennedys.  read more »

The latest ad from John McCain's campaign seeks to widen and exploit lingering divisions among Democrats from this year's primary campaign with clips of Hillary Clinton taking shots Barack Obama. As Marc Ambinder points out, the exact message is rather convoluted and contradictory—the ad suggests Clinton was not offered the vice presidency because she spoke "the truth" about Obama during the primaries, but (as the McCain campaign notes in a separate ad) Joe Biden also criticized Obama during the primaries.

Even so, the tactic is hardly new. After the similarly divisive 1980 Democratic primary campaign, which culminated in Ted Kennedy's refusal to link arms with Jimmy Carter at the New York convention, Ronald Reagan's campaign used some of Kennedy's harshest words about Carter in this fall ad.

At an education forum in Florida, Michael Bloomberg praised John McCain for defending President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, and praised McCain and Barack Obama for supporting merit pay for teachers.

The legislation, which Ted Kennedy also worked on, has faced criticism. 

The mayor's office sent over a copy of the prepared remarks Bloomberg was set to give to the Excellence in Action National Education Summit at Disney World. The mayor said:

"Instituting accountability standards is central to the reforms embodied in the No Child Left Behind Act. And it says a lot about the independence and integrity of Senator John McCain that at a time when the allies of the status quo have made NCLB a political punching bag, he continues to express his support for those accountability standards.  read more »

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A Kos commenter notices that Ted Kennedy, among other leading Democrats, is denounced in strong terms in this post from a Clinton supporter on Hillary Clinton’s campaign web site.

The notice, posted earlier in the month for a demonstration at D.N.C. headquarters when the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets over the fate of the Florida and Michigan delegates, includes this line:  read more »

Obviously, the political world is focused on the health of Ted Kennedy, and not the potential political implications of his diagnosis with a malignant brain tumor. And despite the grim prognosis, it’s worth noting that there is a precedent in the Senate for overcoming similar odds: In 1993, Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter was also diagnosed with a brain tumor and given weeks to live, but he’s still in office today.  read more »

The April 22 Pennsylvania primary breathed new life into an underdog presidential campaign that had been on the ropes, ensuring that the race would continue at least through the Indiana primary in two weeks and raising new concerns within the party about the front-runner’s ability to close the deal.

Yes, this is old news—28 years old, to be exact.  read more »

Hillary Clinton’s thematic inspiration may come from Walter Mondale and his “I am ready to be president now” campaign of 1984, but the uphill climb to the nomination she now faces actually mirrors the challenge confronted by a different Democratic candidate from days gone by: Ted Kennedy in 1980.

Kennedy, in challenging President Jimmy Carter, won enough giant industrial states to keep afloat during the months-long primary season, even as Carter commanded the edge in overall delegates and cumulative popular votes. Instead of surrendering after the last primary in early June, Kennedy soldiered on, intent on using the summer to sow doubts about Carter that might prompt delegates to turn on the president and hand Kennedy the nomination.

Likewise, despite her revival in Ohio and Texas (and Rhode Island), the only realistic scenario under which Clinton secures this year’s nomination will require her to engineer the kind of backdoor maneuver that Kennedy failed to pull off 28 years ago.  read more »

Marcia Pappas, the outspoken activist who called Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama a “betrayal" to women, is heading to Ohio Wednesday to campaign for Hillary Clinton.

Pappas, the president of the National Organization for Women-New York State, said her past comments won’t be an issue.  read more »

Charlie Rangel, a major supporter of Hillary Clinton, is joining Chuck Schumer and a growing number of superdelegates who think the Democratic nominee should reflect the popular vote, not the will of the superdelegates.

From Newsday:  read more »

Earlier today the head of the New York State chapter of N.O.W. (the National Organization for Women), Marcia Pappas, sent out a statement describing Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama as “the ultimate betrayal." But the head of the New York City chapter of N.O.W. has a completely different take.

“He’s been a friend to N.O.W., a friend to women, and a friend to the women’s movement and has a long record of supporting women’s issues,” N.Y.C. N.O.W. president and Hillary Clinton backer Sonia Ossorio told me just now. “I think Ted Kennedy has been a tremendous friend to women.”  read more »

Ted Kennedy's direct link to Camelot means that his endorsement of Barack Obama will have national implications. But its impact might be most acute in Massachusetts, one of the largest states to vote on February 5 and a very winnable target for Obama.

Polling has been sporadic in Massachusetts, but Hillary Clinton has led -- often decisively -- in the surveys taken so far. But her margins may shrink as the state's electorate focuses more closely on the race, and in the wake of Obama's South Carolina victory.

With Kennedy on board, Obama now has a monopoly on the Bay State's highest profile Democrats: John Kerry signed on two weeks ago, and Governor Deval Patrick endorsed Obama late last fall.  read more »

On the heels of an endorsement for Barack Obama from Caroline Kennedy and the news that Ted Kennedy is going to endorse Obama tomorrow, the Clinton campaign released this statement of endorsement from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Governor of Maryland:  read more »

Senator Edward Kennedy told at least one publisher that he will address the Chappaquiddick incident in his forthcoming memoirs, according to a source who took a meeting with Mr. Kennedy about his book this fall and participated in the auction that ended last week.

“He said he’d talk about Chappaquiddick. What he’d say about it, he didn’t say. It was enough for him to say the words, you know what I mean?” the source explained.  read more »

Barack Obama is on the cusp of pulling off what no one in his party has achieved for years.

If recent polls, together with the crowds at his events, are anything to go by, he is simultaneously appealing to strident Democratic activists and seducing floating voters and independents. The combination, if it proves durable, is electoral gold dust.

The recent history of the Democratic Party is littered with compelling insurgent candidates—Howard Dean, Gary Hart and Ted Kennedy, for example—who rode a wave of grass-roots fervor before crashing to earth.

Mr. Obama seems to offer a way out of the trap.  read more »

The Times reported this morning that Sen. Ted Kennedy's autobiography sold to Twelve, an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA, for more than $8 million. The deal was brokered by Bob Barnett, the D.C. lawyer who recently sold Tony Blair's memoirs to Knopf for around $9 million.

A publishing industry source involved in the six-day Kennedy auction told the Observer that nine publishers were seriously interested in acquiring the book and that almost all of them kept offers on the table for "several days."